Amy Derjue
Boston Daily
November 4 can not come soon enough for us. Not only will it put an end to the back and forth between Barack Obama and John McCain, but it will stop the circular argument Massachusetts district attorneys make against decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, even though several of them admit to trying pot in their younger days.
David Abel
Boston Globe
As a student at Stonehill College, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley found himself in a room with guys passing around a bong. "When it came to me, I inhaled so hard that it burned my lungs," he says. "I don't want to sound Clintonesque; I inhaled, but I couldn't handle it."
Gerry Leone, Middlesex district attorney, also admits to smoking pot. "It was years ago, when I was a young man," he said. "I tried it once, and it wasn't something I was ever into."
Michael O'Keefe, district attorney for the Cape and Islands, would only hint at his past: "Like a lot of people in my generation, we did a lot of things that were unwise, unhealthy, and illegal," he says.
The prosecutors - who would have faced obstacles to attaining their law enforcement positions had they been caught - are now among the leading opponents of a proposition on the Nov. 4 ballot that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Francis Ma
Brookline TAB
Brookline -
A Brookline police spokesman praised a ballot initiative to decriminalize marijuana possession, saying it would give police and health professionals more control over educating young people about the dangers of smoking pot.
“So much of what we want to do is the prevention of these types of activities,” O’Leary said. “I think this is the way to go, especially with the $1,000 fine if they don’t do the program.”
Maureen Turner
Valley Advocate
Prosecutors turn to scare tactics as a vote on pot reform approaches.
Last week, a group of local police chiefs, district attorneys and sheriffs gathered outside West Springfield High to warn of the dire consequences they insist will result if Massachusetts voters decide next month to amend the state marijuana laws.
"Ballot Question 2 is a green light to drug dealers to target young children, especially high school students, to buy and use drugs," Hampden County DA Bill Bennett said ominously.
Well, not quite.
Newton TAB editorial staff
Newton -
When marijuana was found in Fire Chief Joseph LaCroix’s car this summer, the reaction in Newton was telling. Not many people suspected that the chief was getting high on his way to work, and few were surprised to learn that the pot belonged to a family member. But for the period when it was unknown why there was an illegal substance hidden in a city-owned vehicle, and for some days after, there was a very active discussion taking place on the Newton TAB blog.
